Decided to work on front fender while waiting for floor pan to arrive. This is the fender that took a hit at some point in its life. Front is punctured, wheel well arch is dented, metal toward rear has a rip in it 1/8" to 3/16" wide.

Here is the worst of it:



This proved to be difficult to work with because of limited access to the back side.
Working with a metal punch and modified screw driver I eventually got it into good enough shape to weld it. It will need to be skimmed with filler and finished shaped after I get the fender in epoxy.


There will be more work done once I can reinstall it and check fit.
Here is the the ripped metal at the back of the wheel well:

Cut out the floor pan enough to allow proper fitting of the new pan.

Media blasting to remove rust. A great Thanksgiving day project.


Welded in floor support and prepped for pan installation:


Floor pan patch prepped and ready for installation tomorrow.

Nice prep work

Floor pan installed:



Cut and fit the back portion of the outer floor panel patch (inner rocker panel).
Had a time since the two panels didn't have the exact same shape as I had hoped.
First picture is spot welding into place. I put spots every 3" and then spots in the center of those etc. until there is about 1/2" between the spot welds.


Next I weld the seam between the spots alternately to keep it from getting too hot:


Floor is done:


Now to fabricate the add on for the kick panel patch:

Made some progress on the kick panel add on today:


Tomorrow I will weld the two pieces together and then weld the panel into place.

That's looking great, I really enjoy this part of a project. I hope the person that owns it will someday finish it up.

If I had one of those I would consider installing the engine behind the cab.

Spot welded the kick panel patch into place. Seam wasn't has tight as I would have liked.


Welded the A-pillar patch into place, drilled holes and installed bolts.


Test fitting the rocker panel:


These patch panels are exact fits so I cut a slot into it the A-pillar patch to get it to match the profile of the stock A-pillar.
Looks like I'll have to do the same where rocker panel joins the A-pillar.


I will finish welding the kick panel into place, then install the lower door hinge and passenger's door before welding the rocker panel into place. Need to align the door and make sure the rocker panel fits correctly.

That sure is a lot of welding.....I don't think I even welded that much in college welding labs....sure will be one solid truck when you are done though...still love to see "you" take it through paint though....

DarrelK wrote:That sure is a lot of welding.....I don't think I even welded that much in college welding labs....sure will be one solid truck when you are done though...still love to see "you" take it through paint though....

Gotta love Rust repair!